What have we preserved within our earthly vessels?
What have we preserved within our earthen vessels that will ensure our inheritance rights and our final outcome ?
Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the thoughts and plans I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.
We see in Jeremiah chapter 29 that God’s people have been carried away captive to Babylon from Jerusalem. All the while God is extending mercy and hope to them, because of his great love for them.
God was ministering to them in their ( deserved ) circumstances that it was only for a set time and that he was wanting them to have hope for a final out come that was for good , not evil.
He warns them about listening to false prophets and diviners, tells them to build houses, plant gardens and enjoy the fruit of them. Marry and multiply, because they are going to be there for a while.
He admonishes them to seek the peace and welfare of the cities in which they dwell. He assures them of his promise to visit them, that their trials and captivity are limited to a set time frame, it will come to an end !
God has given them a wonderful Word to hang on to. He is planning their release from captivity and giving them a promise of returning and possession of their home land ,the promised land.
8: God promises them he will break the bonds and that their oppressors yoke on them and that they will not always be enslaved .
10: God promises to save them, he is with them to deliver them. He tells them he is correcting them in measure, but they will not be destroyed ! He says they are being judged and are not guiltless and that they will not go unpunished.
God deals with his people because he loves them. He judges and corrects sons and daughters. If not they would continue in their destructive sins and perish. 15: Here God asks them Why do you cry out when your pain is the result of your sins ? Without God’s help their situation is incurable and deadly. So God intervenes…17: Yet God goes on to say…” I will restore health to you, and I will heal your wounds.
31: 1 At that time ,says the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.
:12 God tells them they will be redeemed, they shall, be radiant with joy over the goodness of the Lord. Their lives will be like a watered garden and they shall not sorrow any more. God is going to turn their mourning into joy !!!! He will satisfy their lives with his goodness.
32:41 God tells them he will rejoice over them to do them good and will plant them in the land and in truth with his whole heart and whole being.
:42 For thus says the lord, As I brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them !
:44 For men shall buy fields for money and sign deeds, seal them, call for them selves witnesses etc. because he is going to release them into total restoration.
Restoration
33:6 God promises that in the restored Jerusalem he will lay upon it health and healing, and I will cure them and reveal to them the abundance of peace( prosperity, security, stability, and truth.) He will cleanse them, forgive them, enrich their lives with good!
In the midst of their circumstances
32: In this chapter the Word of the lord comes to Jeremiah while Jerusalem is being besieged by the army of Babylon. Jeremiah is locked away and being questioned about his prophesying.
He tells of God telling him to buy a field FOR HIM SELF, FOR THE RIGHT OF
INHERITANCE IS HIS !
Here they are in the worse crisis, terrible circumstances and going into captivity and yet God says something so strange and out of place….go buy a field for your self ! So Jeremiah does what the Word of the Lord says and buys the field, pays money for it ( pays the price ) signed the deed, called witnesses etc.
Preserve your deed , your inheritance !
32: 14 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the god of Israel: “ Take these deeds, both this purchase deed, which is sealed, and this unsealed deed and put them in an earthen vessel TO BE PRESERVED.”
The Israelites had been given a land that was promised, a land that flowed with milk and honey, they entered, took possession of this promised land, yet they would not obey God’s voice. There fore all this calamity came upon them.
:25 Jeremiah says, “ Yet, Oh Lord God, you said to me “ “ Buy this field even though it was given into the hands of the Chaladeans.
:27 God responds,” Is there any thing too hard for me ? “ God would ask us the same thing today, “ Is there any thing too hard for me ? ” Have you taken hold of my Word and promises concerning your situation ? Have you bought the land I have given you, sealed it in your heart and preserved it for a time of need ?
God tells us in so many ways to do the same thing, regardless of appearances or circumstances, what have we redeemed that is part of our inheritance, preserved within our earthen vessels to draw hope from ? What of His Word and His promises have we stored up. Leaned upon, rested in? When the trials come, sickness comes, what will we have preserved to assure us of God’s promises and keeping ?
Matt.13: 44 The Kingdom of heaven is like something precious buried in a field, which a man found and hid again ( are we hiding the precious ?) Then he went in his joy and sells all that he has to buy the field.
:45 Again, the Kingdom of heaven is like a man who is a dealer in search of fine and precious pearls.
:46 Who upon finding a single pearl of great price, went and sold all he had and bought it.
2 Cor. 4:7
We have this treasure( preserved ) in earthen vessels
We possess this precious treasure ( The Gospel…God’s Word ) in frail , human vessels of earth, that the grandeur and exceeding greatness of the power may be shown to be from God and not ourselves.
:10 All the pain and sufferings we may go through is so the resurrection life of Jesus may be shown forth by and through our lives and bodies.
:13 Yet, we have the same spirit of faith as he who wrote, I have believed therefore I have spoken. Ps.116:10
:16 Therefore , do not be discouraged, exhausted, wearied out from fear. Our inner self is being progressively renewed day by day.
:17 For our light, momentary affliction, this slight distress of the passing hour is ever more and abundantly preparing and producing and achieving for us an everlasting weight of glory, beyond measure, excessively surpassing all comparisons and all calculations, a vast and transcending glory and blessedness that shall never cease.
:18 Because, we consider and look not at the things which are seen or apparent, but look to the unseen; for the things which are seen are temporal, brief, or fleeting, but the things invisable are deathless and everlasting.
When the rubber hits the road , so to speak in crisis circumstances, what have you stored up, preserved within you that you can draw upon as precious promises of God even when things look really bad ?
Are there things preserved within your earthen vessels ahead of time to draw hope from and faith and truth from ?
God's Word is truth and reality, no matter what the situation, what it looks like or feels like.
Buy the field of promises and hope, pay the price, seal it within your heart for what ever the need might arise. Have it well preserved within .
We were bought with a price, sealed by His Holy Spirit, preserved and kept by God, given promises of total salvation in every area of our life.
We need to bury these truths within our earthen vessels for times of need…for they will come. Why would God give us these promises if there would be no need for them ?
Preserve them to assure our selves that he has plans and thoughts for good towards us. Health, prosperity , total redemption and wholeness in every are of our lives.....
The field was bought before it was to be possessed and used. The purchased deed before it was needed. We need to do the same.
We store up God’s Word and precious promises and draw from them, from ” our own preservation place “when needed. They must be there first. Sell out to doubt and unbelief, buy the field of promises, you have the right to inherit it all !
Betty Nelms
